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Finding Public Domain Scores Online

Below is a selected list of websites where you will find digitized music that is in the public domain. Be aware that some sites provide better editions and quality images than others.

The International Music Score Library Project

• "repository of more than 15,000 musical scores that are in the public domain... in Canada"
• All scores are in .pdf format

VARIATIONS Prototype: Online Musical Scores - Indiana University

• Content for Indiana University courses on Opera Literature, Song Literature, Orchestral and Choral Literature, Chamber Music Literature and Piano Literature
• "Designed primarily for online display, not for printing"
• Pages of scores scanned as individual .gifs

Free Sheetmusic Library -- Believe Harmony

• Orchestra Works, Chamber Music, Piano Works, Organ Works and Sacred Music from major composers
• Chamber Music section contains scores and parts for Mozart quartets and quintets
• All scores are in .pdf format

Choral Public Domain Library

• Choral sheet music
• Most scores re-type set
• Most scores available in .pdf

WIMA: Werner Icking Music Archive

• Re-type set
• scores available as .pdf

Sheet Music Archive (SMA)

• Limited to 2 free downloads a day (for non-subscribers)
• scores available as .pdf

Musical Scores Collection -- Sibley Music Library at UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER LIBRARIES

• Fairly Random collection
• "Many of [scores] are unique to the Sibley Music Library collection."
• All scores are in .pdf format

The Music Library Scores Collection -- University of Michigan Libraries

• Fairly random collection
• "...comprised of scores held in the Music Library's general and special collections."
• "New works, typically selected out of preservation concern, historical interest or uniqueness, are added on an ongoing basis."
• Each page is an individual file (image or .pdf)
• For online display, not for printing

Digital Scores Collection -– Harvard College Library

• scanned as picture for preservation
• small collection
• not very user friendly

The Mutopia Project: Free sheet music for everyone

• Mostly public domain editions re-type set
• Some original arrangements
• Available as .zip, .pdf and other (letter and A4 size pages)

Composer Specific Pages

BACH GESELLSCHAFT AUSGABE LEIPZIG

• Bach old complete works edition
• Scores are in .pdf format
• One file per volume (very large files)

Chopin Early Editions – University of Chicago Library

• all Chopin, all the time
• Scanned as pictures
• Designed for display not printing

Old Handel Complete Edition

• Designed for display not printing

More Old Handel Complete Edition

• not every volume though – mostly the operas
• Downloads in .zip as individual pages
• Limited # of downloads per day

Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection – University of North Texas Libraries

• Designed for display not printing

NEW MOZRT COMPLETE WORKS (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe)

• Full Scores
• Viewable as .gif or you can generate .pdf

Domenico Scarlatti - the Sheet Music

• Piano Sonatas
• Downloads as .zip
• Re-typeset editions

Sheet Music

Charles H. Templeton, Sr. Music Museum :: The Sheet Music Collection

Indiana University Sheet Music

Popular Sheet Music Collection -- UW-Madison

Wisconsin Sheet Music Database

Kansas City Sheet Music Collection

The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music -- Johns Hopkins University

Manuscripts

Juilliard Manuscript Collection

Schubert Autographs

Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music

• collections of medieval polyphonic music manuscripts
• requires free registration?

Listings of other resources

American Memory from the Library of Congress -- Performing Arts, Music

IMSLP: Other music score websites

Databases Including Scores/Sheet -- Music William and Gayle Cook Music Library at Indiana University School of Music

Free Sheet Music guide

WIMA: Werner Icking Music Archive: Other free sheet music archives